Pettengill Road To Be Completed ‘With No Burden to Taxpayer’

That was the word from Town Manager Kevin Smith at Monday night’s Town Council meeting, and Council Chairman Tom Dolan said he is “very pleased.”

Smith said Pettengill Road would be completed by the current landowners, in addition to the Prologis commitment to build 1,800 feet of the road starting at the airport access road, to open up the UPS/Pratt & Whitney site.

“The Memorandum of Understanding and the Development Agreement are in draft form and all of the parties haven’t given their final blessing on it but all have weighed in and conceptually agree with the items in it,” Smith said.

Smith said Prologis was going to build about a quarter of the road; following that announcement earlier this year, he said, all of the parties with a vested interest in Pettengill got together.

Smith said that when the fiscal analysis was presented, it was determined that property tax revenues on UPS alone would be approximately $800,000 in the first year.

“They essentially said, ‘how can we make this project work at this time, given that there will be a lot of construction going on in this area and using the economy of scale with the construction company,’” Smith said. “This involves the landowners – the King family trust, Nash and Tamposi, which is also known as Ballinger Properties, Manchester Airport and the town, as well as Prologis.”

Smith said what was agreed to was the construction of the entire roadway and all of the utilities “in one shot, instead of incrementally over the next few years.”

Smith said the road will be built to town specifications but at this point will just have two lanes.

He said the road itself with utilities would be built by Prologis and the landowners, while the sewer system will be built by the town and paid for with user fees. He said the landowners would put in a traffic light and want to be reimbursed by the town. Smith said that money, $250,000, would come from the TIF (Tax Incremental Funding) account that has already been set up for the area.

Essentially the road is being built with no tax dollars. “It will have no tax impact on the town,” Smith said. “There would be no burden to the taxpayer.”

Councilor John Farrell asked if the agreements had been reviewed by the town’s attorney and Smith said they had.

“The town’s attorney is recommending that the Council give its endorsement to the Town Manager to sign off on the agreements, provided there are no material changes made between now and when it’s signed,” Smith said.